5. September 2009 by Rev Young.

As you can imagine, I spend much of my time reading reports, articles and following legislation throughout the country involving juvenile justice reform.  My focus is mainly juvenile justice and prison reform although I believe that every aspect of our criminal justice and incarceration systems should be reformed.  I believe that there is a cost for breaking the laws established in this land for order and safety. However, I believe that they should pay the price and be released from the charge against them. 

We seem to like to hold grudges in this country.  We are never quite finished punishing someone for something they have done that offended us or wronged us.  Don’t believe that is true?  Look at how long we remember and recall the mistakes people have made.  Look at how long we stay angry at our bosses or loved ones.  We love to hold a grudge and portray ourselves as victims so that we can receive some measure of sympathy and attention.  Sad.  We want others to have compassion for OUR hardships and troubles but we offer none in return.

Our laws currently take a young person that has not reached maturity and hold them as responsible as you or I.  We make statements like, “they should have known better”, “they know right from wrong”.  “Well didn’t it occur to them that helping their friend would get them in trouble?”  The answer is: they didn’t, they don’t and NO. 

With juvenile offenders, we have the opportunity to do something good.  We have the opportunity to make a difference in one persons life that may be the catalyst to changing the course of a family , a neighborhood and a city.  We forget the positive impact we can have on a human life if we so choose.  Young people are mold-able, impressionable, trainable and hungry.  We have the opportunity to take a young person and help them change the course of their life. 

I can hear the responses now….yes but he killed someone.  Not everyone will make the shift, not everyone is reachable and some of them are just plain mentally ill.  Does that mean that we forget about them and not try to give them some sort of quality of life?  I see people who pour more time and money into their dying pet than we are willing to expend on these young people. 

These are not hardened criminals, they are kids.  They will come to realize their mistakes, they will realize their missed opportunities and they will hope to get a second chance….a chance to give instead of take.  We don’t want to give them that chance.  We want them to be remorseful but we won’t listen to their apologies….they aren’t good enough.  We want them to pay for their crime but we are not willing to let them give back to us……we would have to take a chance and leave our anger behind.

We have moved into an era of reclamation.  We want to reclaim control over our debt, we are reclaiming land, reclaiming neighborhoods, reclaiming our identities and our inheritance.  Shouldn’t our priority be to reclaim our children first? 

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5. September 2009 by Rev Young.

While most criminal justice reform advocates tend to believe that we are failing our children, our communities and wasting tax dollars by charging juvenile offenders as adults, their is a growing number of lawmakers that believe the same.  There are even some who are willing to speak out on this issue and the number is growing every day.  Most people, including your legislators, have no idea what happens to juvenile offenders.  The truth is, as we have slashed most programs, juvenile delinquency prevention and juvenile detention and reform programs have been cut as well.  Instead of opting to spend our tax dollars on programs and facilities that have proven they can make a difference in a child’s life, they have chosen to spend more money on prisons. 

With all the focus on budget problems right now, we seem to forget one thing…….we are talking about human beings here.  These are people who’s life we are playing with or destroying.  These are people who have made mistakes, had accidents or used poor judgement and are paying with their lives.  Some of them literally.  When we look at the use of our resources, we should be considering options and alternatives that will produce an outcome benefiting the whole community.  We need to look for ways to use our resources to strengthen and heal our communities.  The methods we have been using are tried and true……they don’t work! 

I want to applaud Rep. Claire Levy for using her voice.  Read On…..

perspective

Deadly sentences for juveniles

By Rep. Claire Levy

Posted: 08/30/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT

Two teenage boys have committed suicide in Colorado jails within the past 10 months.

Jimmy Stewart was 17 years old last November when he foolishly took his father’s car and drove while he was intoxicated, killing another person. He was in a juvenile detention facility for three weeks before he was transferred to jail. He was remorseful. The detention center put him on suicide watch.

No one was watching him in the Denver County Jail. After several days in jail, he killed himself.

Robert Borrego was also 17 when he was arrested on May 26 in Pueblo for assault and possession of an illegal weapon (a butterfly knife). According to news reports, Borrego got into a fight outside the state fairgrounds following a tough-man competition and stabbed another kid. He had been in isolation in the county jail when he killed himself on June 15.

Neither of these young men was in jail because they had been a behavior problem in detention. They weren’t in jail to protect the public; juvenile detention facilities are locked and secure. They weren’t in jail because of a considered decision that jail was where they belonged. No one had assessed their psychological condition, criminal history, risk of flight, seriousness of the offense, and other factors particular to them before putting them in jail.

They were in jail because they were being charged as adults.

Their deaths were senseless tragedies because the high risk of suicide by juveniles in jails is well known by experts on juvenile justice.

Juveniles who are charged as adults are transferred from a locked juvenile detention facility to the county jail. In the county jail, the kid is not allowed to see or hear the adult inmates. If there are no other juveniles in the jail, these restrictions mean they are in what amounts to solitary confinement. They aren’t in school. They aren’t in programs to address their mental health or behavior problems. In some jails, they can’t get a hug, a hand squeeze or pat on the back from a visiting relative. They just sit.

Being held in isolation causes anxiety and paranoia and exacerbates existing mental disorders. These youth are 36 times more likely to commit suicide in an adult jail than in a juvenile detention facility.

Statewide, about 100 kids are confined in jail every year while awaiting trial. The average case takes about 180 days to be resolved. Although these kids have been charged with serious crimes, six months in jail awaiting trail could prove to be a death sentence.

The Centers for Disease Control has found that juveniles who are prosecuted and sentenced as adults are 34 percent more likely to be re-arrested than those who stay in the juvenile system. They become more violent and better criminals when they have been in the adult system. Many of them have been victims of abuse and neglect in their own homes. They are two to three times more likely than the general population to have a mental disorder. They lack the maturity and judgment to appreciate the seriousness of their acts, and have poor self-control.

Nationally, as many as half of the youth who are charged as adults and transferred to jails are either not convicted of anything or end up back in juvenile court. Twenty percent of them will have spent over six months in an adult jail without adequate education and other services. During this time, lasting damage is done.

Here in Colorado, thanks to the newly passed House Bill 1321, some thought will now be given to whether a juvenile should be moved to jail when they get charged with an adult crime. The prosecutor will have to consult with the defense attorney and consider a host of factors in determining where to hold him until the case is resolved.

While HB 1321 may save some lives, we must also reconsider the current practice of charging juveniles as young as 14 with adult offenses. Research shows that with the exception of the most violent and hardened offenders, treating juvenile offenders like adult criminals is counter- productive. It simply pushes troubled youth farther down the path toward a lifetime of crime.

It is costly as well. Every dollar spent on evidence-based programs for juveniles can yield up to $13 in cost savings. When we prevent a child from engaging in repeat criminal offenses, we save the community as much as $3.4 million.

Colorado should join the growing list of states that are rethinking their approach to juvenile offenders. We cannot afford to give up on these kids.

State Rep. Claire Levy of Boulder represents House District 13.

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5. September 2009 by Rev Young.

There is much cause for celebration for many families of incarcerated people in the state of Colorado.  The Governor, prompted by huge budget deficits, is looking to release a few thousand offenders early and release more from parole that are in compliance with their parole guidelines. 

There is another group of incarcerated people that we have been advocating for, that I believe are good candidates for early release as well.  Juveniles serving adult sentences in prison.  Many will say that this state only sends juveniles into the adult system if they are truly bad criminals.  That statement, in itself, is an oxymoron.  How can a child be a truly bad criminal.  When we think of dangerous and horrible criminals we think of Charles Manson, the Uni Bomber or others that have a history or pathology of terrible crime.  Most of these kids were never even in trouble with the law before they faced charges for the crimes that cost them their life and their future. 

I am posting an article below that was written by my fellow advocate.  Please read and then I will continue this series in my next blog.

perspective

The lost juvies

Youth offenders given sentences of life without the chance of parole may yet have a shot at release. But are we doing enough for them?

By Mary Ellen Johnson

Posted: 08/30/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT

“In America, we recycle our trash and throw away our children.”

Those words were spoken by a mother whose 16-year-old son is serving life in prison without possibility of parole. His sentence isn’t unusual. America is the only nation on earth that sentences its children to die behind bars.

We have thousands of throw-away children wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in prisons stretching from coast to coast. In 2006, Colorado became the first state to reverse that trend, by allowing parole after 40 years. It is a modest beginning.

In 2007, Gov. Bill Ritter created the nation’s first juvenile clemency board, which has been universally lauded. However, it is distressing that not a single juvenile has yet received a pardon or commutation. Still, by creating such a board, Ritter acknowledges that, from their brain development to their capacity for rehabilitation, children are different from adults. Theoretically, those who were convicted of crimes that occurred when they were 14, 15, 16 or 17 deserve a second look.

But political reality intrudes.

We all have different versions of right and wrong. It seems wrong that a kid gets sentenced to life for a hit-and-run that generally garners probation or a few years in prison for an adult. Or that a 38-year-old man receives 16 years in jail for setting his father on fire over a minor argument (the dad later died), while a 15-year-old who kills his molesters is put away for life. Yet other people looked at the same set of circumstances and had no trouble trying, convicting and incarcerating those cases.

I know several of these young prisoners and believe they can be rehabilitated. But Americans are a merciless people. We talk about redemption but we don’t practice it — certainly not for a young gang member who participates in a drive-by shooting or for a frightened teen who cleans up after his friend kills his abuser.

The facts are spun and re-spun on all sides. There is not much compassion, but a lot of hatred. And pesky political realities, such as: Where’s that 15-year-old’s constituency? Who will speak for him?

Who even cares?

If I were Gov. Ritter, would I ever give any of these kids a commutation or clemency? What’s in it politically for him — beyond our assertion that redemption should carry as great a moral weight as retribution?

We at the Pendulum Foundation believe we’ve found something that’s “in it” for everybody. We can give some of these kids a second chance plus promote public safety plus practice redemption and rehabilitation rather than retribution. Our solution?

Programs.

Programs inside, and then more programs inside. Cognitive behavior therapy. Life skills. College. Right now, young inmates serving life without parole get few programs. However, the same bill that lowered life sentences also mandated that these young prisoners get the same opportunities for programs as those who are eligible for parole.

We think it’s important to provide them with a rainbow of proven programs. Not only will these (mostly privately funded) programs make those young inmates far better candidates for a commutation or clemency, all studies agree they also transform thinking and lives.

Once these offenders successfully complete all programs, we propose that they be given a conditional commutation or review. Inmates serving life without parole would then complete their re-integration into society via a privately funded rehabilitation center.

The entire process will take years. We don’t care. What we want to do is get them out of prison and firmly down the road to rehabilitation. Twenty years ago, when America was a different nation, these kids never got much prison time anyway. They received treatment, were rehabilitated and released back into society where most of them obeyed the laws, worked hard, paid their taxes, and disappeared into middle-class society.

We ask that some of our young inmates receive that same opportunity — an opportunity for a second chance.

We believe that it’s long past time when we recycle only our trash. It’s time we recycle our children, as well.

Mary Ellen Johnson is executive director of the Pendulum Foundation, a Denver-based juvenile-justice advocacy group.

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